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RSL is a lanyard connecting one of the main risers and reserve ripcord (and MARD if it's there). Once the reserve canopy is open, RSL doesn't have any function, but it still exists connected to the main riser. In case you have two canopies out and decide to cutaway the main, you will still have a lanyard dangling from the main riser which can get caught in something (for example, it could whip and wrap around the reserve risers). Disconnecting it reduces/removes the chances for this.

So after a week of back-and-forth emails, here's what I have: A porosity test is required. Anybody with a porosity tester can do the test. There are no special qualifications for the tester, no calibration standards for the equipment. The porosity test must be done at least twice (to get a "mean average"), but maybe more, one of which must be the center cell. All the tests are "normally" done 12" from the nose on the top surface. If there are normal places, there must be alternative places, but these are not specified. The center cell reading can be an indeterminate amount higher than 3 cfm, as long as the average is 0-3. If the average is higher than 3, there's nothing to prevent you from doing additional tests until you can get the average down to 3 or lower. If you are happy with the results of your inspection and the porosity test, you can put the canopy back in service for at least one pack. After that, additional packs/jumps might be authorized, but I never got an answer to repeated questions about the correlation between porosity test results and additional packs/jumps. No new scorecard on the canopy required, so no way for the next rigger to know if the porosity test was done or what the results might have been, or how many additional packs/jumps might be authorized. Findings should be recorded on the data card, even though there is no data card retention requirement in the US, and the data card is not a maintenance record in the US. Findings should also be recorded in the rigger logbook.

Funny, it kinda seemed like you thought what Europe is doing meant something when you started this thread yesterday. If you’re now saying that what Europe does is irrelevant and therefore your OP is pointless then I guess the thread can end here.

USPA says you should make a jump with a coach or instructor. Seems typically a check dive is what is done. So you get stable after exit, get unstable(flip/roll), get stable again, maybe some 360s and or other basic tasks. Maintain altitude awareness and initiate breakoff at correct pre-decided altitude. Track away and pull. May be different depending your country/dz/governing body regulations. I'm no expert on this, but it's what I've experienced and see/hear.

Put a few of these jumpers in the same formation jump and you can see if someone is flying backwards because they're touching their head with their feet and correct it in the next jump. These things might not be obvious or noticed without a video. I have definitely had a lot of solved problems by reviewing the videos. Camera is an extremely good tool for learning, the ideal would be that you are always jumping with someone experienced who can help you learn, but that's not always the case (and in my example, it was very rare). Not everyone will wear the camera for the same reason. I know folks with 100ish jumps who wore hand-mounted camera to record themselves for social media. These folks focus on the camera and not on the jump and it's where the problems can arise. Those who can put on a camera and forget about it until the ground can learn a lot faster with it. The rules are made with a margin on the safe side. 200 jumps is not some scientifically correct number, you're not unsafe on #200 and then safe on #201, but there needs to be some criteria, right? How would you define it?

Hi Mark, Re: no calibration standards for the equipment. IMO at that point the test is merely an exercise. The rest of your post supports my above opinion. Jerry Baumchen

There is no better learning option than analyzing camera footage after the jump, as I find that jump detail recollection of even very experienced jumpers is usually rather poor. These things can help enable people with jump video without presenting a snag hazard on the exterior of the helmet, making weak spots on helmet surface caused by drilling, and without endangering people on the ground by falling externally mounted cameras. Therefore, I would absolutely recommend these as a good learning tool to licensed jumpers. Image quality will not be the greatest (especially with a full face camera visor over them), but going back to the situation OP described, very few people under 200 jumps are on a high enough flying level to be concerned with jump video quality. By the way, even though OP said that these looked like somewhat bulkier sunglasses (and I remember them looking like that some years back when they first appeared on the market), a quick google search reveals that todays models look like ordinary sport sunglasses, or even like ordinary thicker framed eyeglasses. Even though there are still some recommendations that say your safe camera flying abilities miraculously appear on jump #201, the reality is that in the 21st century, people who want to mount a hidden camera will go out and do it, as the camera technology is sufficiently advanced to allow it. I would much rather have low experience people wear a snag free camera, show their videos to more experienced people, and having an option of someone telling them what they are doing wrong than forcing them to wear the camera in secret and teach themselves from the footage.

Turns out Leona Helmsley was right. She was just dumb enough to brag about it.

Yup. This was discussed quite thoroughly when it first came out. Very normal jump in most respects. Except for the simple fact that they got so involved in geeking the camera that they NEVER checked their altitude. Until after they were on the ground. In this case "better late than never" doesn't apply. There's a whole sub forum devoted to photog & vid. There's a couple of sticky threads in it that address the question 'why can't I jump a camera when I don't have the experience I am supposed to have?'

I am not sure that the fact that we have spring loaded PCs for reserves is a good argument for defending them for mains. Reserves are special in a few ways: - AADs need to be able to activate the opening sequence, so you need the spring loaded PC for that, no way around it. - They are most of the time activated after a cutaway, more often than not caused by a spinning main and activated via RSL or MARD, so the large burble created by a wingsuit or a balloon suit are simply not there. - The PC does not stay connected to the canopy. Different use cases and boundary conditions, so different solutions. I am quite sure that if wingsuiters start relying on spring loaded PCs we'd start seeing soon a lot of videos of PCs being sucked in their burble.

Yet all if those denigrating ripcord and spring loaded pilot chutes for wing suiting rely on them to save your ass when you can't get the throw out handle? Hmmm. Many wingsuiters if not going to wingsuit specific canopies are going to triathlons, spectres, original Sabres. Canopies very much like those used by students with ripcords still at some dzs and for many years before most moved to throw outs for students. These canopies may not be as fast with a pc dragging, but also for a couple of decades we didn't have or didn't routinely use collapsible throw out PCs. So we were dragging an open PC on an 8ft bridle. Sounds familiar. Put the spring loaded PC on a long bridle and it would work just as well. Might there be issues with a long bridle trailing? Yeah. But no more than not finding a handle and using your last chance to live, which happens to be a ripcord.;) The main reason folks got rid of spring loaded PC's was the effort required to close the smaller containers and that it didn't look as cool. For many years we believed that the throw out still had to be visible. Belly bands, front of leg strap rear of leg strap all came before BOCs. Which was still a change in paradyme in not being able to see what opened your parachute. Is a throw out BOC best for a lot of skydiving? Sure. Maybe. Does a ripcord still work? Yep. But when we want to save our life in any situation we use a spring and a ripcord. And wingsuits with more and more rigid arms may need a thumb operated electrically released spring loaded PC. Or spring launched throw out like the T11 chest reserve? Hmmm. Rant off.

I've seen this video many times and it scares me each time. I like to do math so let's do some math. Let's say AAD activation is at 750 ft. Exit was at 0:06 AAD activation was at 1:05 So 59 seconds Math will show the first 1000 feet takes 11 seconds (V0 = 0 MPH / V11 = 120 MPH) Terminal velocity is 120 MPH = 176 ft/s / Which equals 5.7 s/1000ft (59-11)/5.7 = 8.421 1000ft segments Exit Altitude = 750ft + 8.421*1000 + 1000ft = 10,171 ft (typical Cessna exit) Therefore: Normal jump run

Way to go about it -- if your body is ready, your mind will be more ready, too! Wendy P.

Seems I'm on a roll with posting FF videos, but I really find this one as an important part of the literature and an instant response to "why can't I wear camera". The lack of skills (while wearing cameras) is fairly obvious and is probably indicative of their jump counts. It's a bit hypocritical of me since I started wearing camera at around #80 (a bit different laws here), but without a fair number of jumps, you just don't have the CPU to process everything, you're still wasting brain power to check if your legs are bent and if you're rotating. Adding camera can easily turn it into a zoo dive. Not everyone will think about the camera and the shots during the jump, but it's just easier to put a big enough number and play on the safe side.

The news is wrong because they're not buying into your Hunter Biden derangement syndrome?

Update on this for anyone looking to reference in the future. I’ve had this slider on my KA120 for about 30 jumps and have had nothing but awesome openings, terminal and sub-terminal. The openings are improved massively over the stock slider. The only minor issue is having it usually stop a few inches above my soft links but a little bit of front helps push it down so I grab it without much of a headache https://youtu.be/HW3cdNfIi7Q

Inflation and shortages...together with a slowing recovery? I'd suggest school so you can understand how those factors operate.